2016

District Attorney Vern Pierson Issues Public Service Announcement on Veterans and the Price They Pay

Department:

District Attorney

Date:

2/23/2016

Contact:

Dave Stevenson

Phone:

(530) 303-2411

Page Content

District Attorney Vern Pierson will be releasing a Public Service Announcement on the subject of veterans and the price they pay for serving our country.

Approximately one in four military age Americans are eligible to serve in the armed services. The average recruitment age for these young men and women is only 20 years old. Honoring the oath taken upon entry to the service sometimes means enduring the worst humanity has to offer and all veterans leave the service a different person than they were on entry. Some possess visible scars that will remain with them the rest of their lives; others have scars that are all too real, but not visible to the eye. Despite screening prior to entry to the military, veterans have a suicide rate 50% higher than those who did not serve. In 2012, more service members took their own lives than were killed in a war zone. Approximately 300,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress or PTSD. Between eight and twenty percent deployed suffered a traumatic brain injury. Untold numbers of Vietnam veterans have simply gone undiagnosed.